CowPi Journal

The Conquerors Riding By

4 April 2004, 11 pm | Poem

I saw the Conquerors riding by
With cruel lip and face wan:
Musing on kingdoms sacked and burned
There rode the Mongol Genghis Khan;

And Alexander, like a God,
Who sought to weld the world in one:
And Caesar with his laurel wreath;
And like a thing from hell, the Hun;

And leading, like a star the van,
Heedless of upstretched arm and groan,
Inscrutable Napoleon went
Dreaming of Empire and alone…

Then all perished from the earth
As fleeting shadows from a glass,
And, conquering down the centuries,
Came Christ, the Swordless, on an ass.

— Harry Kemp